Ohio gov rejects mercy for pregnant woman's killer

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio's governor is refusing to spare a condemned killer who raped and stabbed to death a pregnant woman and is sentenced to die by a lethal injection process never used in the United States.

Gov. John Kasich's decision comes in the case of death row inmate Dennis McGuire, scheduled to die Jan. 16 for the 1989 killing of Joy Stewart in Preble County in western Ohio.

The governor's announcement Tuesday did not explain his reasoning, as is customary when he denies mercy in death penalty cases.

Kasich followed a ruling last month of the Ohio Parole Board, which rejected arguments from McGuire's attorneys that he suffered a chaotic and abusive childhood.

McGuire faces execution by a combination of two drugs untried in the U.S.

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THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Ohio's untried execution method, the first of its kind in the nation, will cause the condemned killer of a pregnant woman "agony and terror" as he struggles to breathe, attorneys trying to stop the execution argued in federal court.

The two-drug combination won't sedate death row inmate Dennis McGuire properly, and he will experience a suffocation-like syndrome known as air hunger, the attorneys said in filings Monday and Tuesday.

The drugs were chosen because of a shortage of other lethal injection drugs.

"McGuire will experience the agony and terror of air hunger as he struggles to breathe for five minutes after defendants intravenously inject him with the execution drugs," the inmate's attorneys said in a Monday court filing.

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The dose planned for McGuire isn't enough to properly sedate him, meaning he'll experience "the horrifying sensation" of being unable to breathe, Harvard anesthesiology professor David Waisel said in a Tuesday filing in support of the inmate.

McGuire, 53, is scheduled to die Jan. 16 for the 1989 rape and fatal stabbing of Joy Stewart in Preble County in western Ohio.